Sunday, August 10, 2014

On its feet!

I know its early on Sunday for a post but I have a burger burn to attend today and I have some exciting news to share so here you go.  I will let the pictures tell the story.


Woo Hoo!  Engine hung and on its feet for the first time.  To make this happen I first bolted the engine mount to the fuselage, then I used the engine mount and my engine hoist to lift the fuselage up high enough to get the landing gear installed.  Then I let the fuselage back down and hoisted the engine up to match the engine mount.  The bolts were not as hard as I thought they would be but it still took me about an hour and a half to get all 4 bolts in and tight.  Not torqued yet but tight.


Back in the garage but turned around so I can work on the vertical stab.  The garage door wont open with the vertical on when the airplane is facing in.  It was certainly fun jockeying this thing around in a driveway full of cars.

Lots of work led up to the gear and engine mounting.  I spent most of Friday and Saturday working on the canopy tip up hardware.  This picture shows the latch that allows me to slide the canopy back where it will tip up from the rear.  There is a lot of work in this picture.  The brackets had to be measured and drilled to the fuselage, then the plastic block had to be measured and drilled at odd angles to attach to the bracket.  Then I had to put it all together. I didn't take any pictures but I also installed the roller brackets on the forward canopy legs.  This required me to cut the tubing off flush with the bottom rail and then try to fit everything exactly back where it was.  Took lots of time and measuring, drilling, grinding, filing and buffing but its done and it came out great!